Careful what you Wish for
by Reconfigure the Citrus
Summary: Taylor has always wanted to be an Alexandria package, this is what would have happened if that wish came true.
1. Chapter 1

Take it from me, flying under your own power is probably the best thing in the world. Being able to rip apart locker doors isn't quite as fun, but equally appreciated considering just where I was leaving. I shuddered at the thought of that horrid place. I never want to be in a confined space again. I chuckled a bit darkly at the thought that with my powers I doubted that many people could actually _Make_ me anymore. Once I was reasonably certain that no one had seen me I landed in the far end of the alleyway behind my house. Walking down the alley, I thought on what I wanted to do about the Trio. They had tortured me, broken so many things, physical and metaphorical. They had ruined my mother's flute, schoolwork, clothes, but those weren't the worst. Emma had personally broken more promises than I could remember, broken my heart, my spirit, and she tarnished my mother's memory as much as she could.

I wouldn't let this stand to continue any longer. I knew that my powers had to be changing how I was thinking, but that was my power telling me that too. Next to my more obvious powers, a fairly strong Alexandria package, I had the side power that enhanced how my mind worked. My memory was perfectly intact, showing me the horrors after I gained my powers in far too accurate detail. My thoughts have become more logical, I knew that those feelings of terror weren't gone but I had enough self-control to bottle it until I could deal with them without risking outing myself. Regardless knew that I didn't want to keep being bullied.

Opening the back gate I tried to not lose too much of the _Waste_ that was covering me. True I wanted the repulsive stuff off as soon as possible, but if I spread it everywhere then I'd have to clean it up later or risk my Dad finding out what happened. Well, we would probably be getting a call later for me breaking out of my locker but I think I'll be able to minimize the fallout of that. I'll just say that I have no idea what could have happened, why would I want to ruin my own stuff, plus there's no way I'd be able to damage a locker that much. That and I can say I just chose to skip school after I showed up. Yes, I'd have to tell Dad about the bullying but that's way easier than telling him that I've suddenly got powers. _That_ would have been quite the conversation.

Unlocking the door carefully, I didn't want to rip this door off its hinges after all, I entered the kitchen. Floating upstairs and into the bathroom I ripped off what was left of my wretched clothes and threw them into the corner. Eugh, disgusting things. Cranking the showers heat up to max I floated into the shower. I had to ease up on scrubbing since I was tearing the puff I was using apart. That, at least, helped me feel a bit better. Drying off was shockingly easy since the water didn't seem to soak into me as much as it should have. I guess it must be another perk of my powers, if an odd one. Wrapping my towel around me I floated into my room to get changed.

Wearing clothes that hadn't been defiled I exited the shower and began scrubbing the bathroom. Taking care to not break anything this time, having learnt my lesson from the puff. After having retrieved the refuse scattered around the house and the back yard and thrown out the garbage bag, I decided to make some tea. Preparing the teapot getting out the cup and bag I went and laid down on the couch. Now all there is to do is plan out a costume and wait. Once I have my tea I can go up to my room and have that panic attack I've been putting off.

Hearing my Dad come in from my bedroom I got up, remembered I had to actually walk, and went out to greet him. As I began going down the stairs he called up to me.

"Kiddo, you home? The school called, said that we needed to go in for a meeting, today preferably. Hope you don't mind but I said alright since it sounded pretty important. " He said as he took off of his shoes.

"It's fine Dad, it's not like I had any plans today. What did they call about?" I knew, but I needed to act like I didn't. He didn't look too impressed as he turned to me.

"Well, they said you didn't show up in school today, and something about your locker being vandalized. And where are your glasses?" What did he mean about my glasses, they're right- oh.

"I left school because of the bullying that I've been meaning to tell you about," cue looking ashamed from me to sell it and from him for not noticing, "but I've got no idea about my locker. I got some contacts after I fell and broke my glasses while I was out today." I then changed to a concerned face. Yeah, I was lying to him but I could fix our broken father-daughter relationship later.

"Alright, that… makes sense I guess. Who is it that's been bullying you? We can get them called in, they probably would have anyway after you brought them up with the school." I cringed, and this time, it was a bit real.

"That's kind of the reason I didn't really want to tell you." I said, with trepidation evident in my voice.

"It's alright, you don't need to say it this instant, but you'll need to tell your teachers." He said, trying to sound comforting.

"It's… Emma, Sophia, and Madison." He looked shocked.

"But, why? Why would Emma do this to you?" The one question I didn't have the answer to, yet.

"I don't know, it started after summer camp a year and a half ago. I've got a journal of things that they did to me, I should probably bring it with us, shouldn't I?" He nodded, still trying to get his head around the idea of Emma bullying me. Hell, I was still trying to after all this time.

"Yeah, alright, you should do that. We need to get going in a little bit, but I'll call the school to tell them about the bullying." Agreeing I went upstairs to get ready after giving him the full names of the students and teachers that were relevant. I changed into nicer clothes, what was the old me thinking with her method of dressing? True I wasn't going without a sweater or jeans but these ones fit me better and had some colour at least in place of my usual grey-on-grey. Ignoring my own complaints, I grabbed everything that I could think of as evidence, including the journal of course.

Heading back down I saw Dad waiting by the door, looking very angry, probably at Alan Barnes, Emma's father. He was also one of Dad's closest friends. He looked up at me coming down the stairs and put down the phone. I guess he might also be angry with the school. We began heading out to the car, with a grim look on his face. Once we were driving I explained what had been happening over the last year and a half, while thinking out my strategy.

Entering into the school, I was glad to see that no one else had stayed late. What was not making me happy was the school itself. This 'esteemed establishment' had about as much credibility as the drug dealers that hung out across the street. Actually, they at least had equal amounts of robbing and poisoning you no matter who you were. Therefore, they surpassed the school's reliability. Great, that just really improves my faith in the faculty here. Focusing on the people standing outside Blackwell's office I had to resist the urge to grin. Emma, Sophia, and Madison were standing with clear amounts of agitation mirrored by their parents. Greg was standing a little bit away from the rest, looking really confused. I, however, was playing up the scared bullied kid that was worried about having to be in the same room as them. It was all about image in things like this, it would help turn their parents and the teachers against them. If I played it right I could also get them to realize the truth, that I _Had_ actually broken the locker, since they knew that I'd been shoved in there. Them trying to say otherwise would actually be worse for their cases.

I held my head down, looking spooked and wary while they tried to look innocent. Excluding Sophia, she just looked pissed to be here, and at me probably. The secretary sent us in, opening the door for us. Inside the conference room sat a few of the teachers that I had named to Dad. I guess that they couldn't all make it here in time. Ms. Blackwell, Mr. Quinlan, Mr. Gladly, and Mrs. Knott were sitting around the table while the rest of us filed in. Blackwell glared at me as I entered while Mrs Knott looked at me with a mix of pity and worry.

"Now that you're all here maybe we can begin getting a better idea of what exactly happened today." Blackwell said while looking over all of us.

"So why are we all here?" Greg asked with a hesitant tone of voice, he clearly would rather be home doing whatever it was he did after school.

"We're here to figure out why Ms. Hebert's locker was filled with that disgusting stuff and what happened to the locker afterwards. Here are some photos of the scene so that we're all on the same page" Blackwell replied, placing some pictures on the table.

"Well, I got to school this morning hoping that I'd be left alone, since I've been being bullied a lot recently, and went to my locker. When I got there I saw them," I began, pointing at Emma, Sophia, and Madison. Alan tried to speak but Mrs. Knott shushed him, asking for me to finish, "standing nearby my locker. When I opened it I saw all of those vile things and, well I decided that there really wasn't any point in being here anymore. After I saw that thing though I threw up from the stench." By now the Trio had gotten the pictures and looked horrified at the shattered locker door. After all, they knew the truth about what had happened, seen me thrown into there yet here I was without a blemish and there was my poor locker, warped by my hand until it was unrecognizable.

"When I turned to go Emma said 'How do you like your Christmas present, Taylor? I know it's a bit late but we spent tons of time preparing it for you. I hope you enjoy it.' and the others said something about 'wallowing in filth' but by then I had stopped listening and just began walking out of the building." Greg looked like he was about to speak up but then his eyes widened in realization. Mr. Quinlan noticed and asked Greg.

"Mr. Veder, do you have something to say?" After a pointed look at me, he spoke up.

"Yeah, well. You see I was there, and what Taylor said is totally accurate. I felt really bad and wanted to help her but I wasn't sure of what to say, I think Mr. Gladly was there too, but he didn't speak up at the time either. Just stood around like he always does when Taylor gets bullied." I nodded in agreeance with Greg, something I thought I'd never do. All eyes turned to Mr. Gladly at this, who began sputtering before he actually got words out.

"Well I, um, don't really have a counter to today," he said, looking at his hands in shame. But with a bit of confusion, he'd left before I'd been shoved in had probably heard what had happened from everyone else, "but before I thought that you just had a few disputes here and there, not something that you'd want to get a teacher involved in."

"Then what about those times I told you I was being bullied, or however many spitballs were thrown into my hair? The glue spilt on my work, how every time you call me up to the front of the room I get tripped? What about those?" Greg, feeling confident with how well things had gone last time began acting oddly competent compared to his usual self.

"I've seen it happen a ton of times, with the other teachers too. It's a daily occurrence, you can't seriously say that you're that oblivious. I once even saw Blackwell shredding a note about the bullying that I handed in along with a few Taylor wrote." Mrs. Knott looked furious at that, even the other two teachers didn't look happy. Alan, however, was the first to speak up.

"Alright, so far we have some claims about my daughter and her friends doing some pranks here and there but that's no reason to be truant and blame it on them, is it?" He said with a voice I imagined him using in court.

"They keep destroying my work, so I'm not getting good grades anymore. I keep getting my stuff stolen and ruined like the books in my locker," I said pointing out the photos focusing on the inside of my soiled locker, "and money's been tight for a while so I didn't want to keep draining that with replacing everything. I don't have any friends since they scare everyone off, threatening them, doing things to them too. Here are some photos of what I've had damaged." I handed them out. When Mrs. Knott saw them she spoke up.

"I remember the day that this happened, it was a few months ago, How much do you have, there's got to be a few hundred pictures here." She asked.

"I've been recording everything that's happened since September this year, it's not a lot but it does mention every teacher who noticed, I flipped to a few entries in my journal where both a teacher and Greg had seen me at the same time. After I went through a few more where only one party had seen it going on. I'm so glad that my powers came with super-memory right now. Otherwise, I couldn't have pinpointed like this and might have just started from the beginning. Greg spoke up again, so far he was batting three for three, well by his standards at least.

"I don't quite remember all of them but a few I'm sure that at least most of these happened." Mr. Quinlan decided to add his own two cents.

"I can't remember any of these. With so many other issues in this school, you can hardly expect that little tricks like these would be noticed above gang violence, drug usage, and weapons being brought to school." Mrs. Knott glared at him and flipped to one of the events.

"Well I personally remember this one," she said, pointing to one where both of them had witnessed me being tripped down the stairs by Sophia, "and I remember you being there. I admit, I haven't been doing things the way that I should have, but at least I'm not lying about it." Blackwell cleared her throat.

"Hopefully, we can get back to the other half of the question since this was supposed to be about the damage to the locker and not what has been troubling Ms. Hebert. Now, do you have any idea as to why your locker looks like a bomb went off inside of it? Other than the waste which you claim these three put there." Now here comes the hard part. If anyone here chooses to not play along then I'm going to be outed instantly. Yes, they've got to be suspicious but there isn't any proof, yet at least.

"I honestly have no idea what happened to it, I left school at the start of the day." I gave the four who knew differently a pointed look, they _Knew_ I was lying and if they said a word they'd ruin everything. Shockingly it was Sophia who came to my rescue.

"Yeah, most of the things in here we did, even the locker thing today." She said, holding the journal while leafing through it. Emma looked shocked while Madison had caved in on herself almost literally. The lady who had come in with Sophia, who clearly wasn't related, looked quite upset. Almost as much as Alan did in fact.

"You're accusing my daughter of doing this horrible thing with you as well? If you've done something wrong then don't shove the blame onto others." Sophia looked at him like he was a fool, which he kind of was at the moment.

"I said _We_ did it, not just me, all three of us. We had nothing to do with whatever broke the door. But we filled it with that shit and said stuff pretty close to what Hebert and Veder said we did." Alan looked red as a tomato at this while Madison's parents simply looked very disappointed in their child. Blackwell did a repeat performance and cleared her throat even louder.

"Since we have multiple people all agreeing on what has happened then I guess this has become about the bullying since we've dealt with the locker as much as we can. Now, what would you like to see happen so that you were satisfied?" She looked furious at the Trio since she couldn't even downplay it since Sophia had verified enough of what I said, Greg and the teachers too. I made a good act at pretending on thinking about what to decide but in all honesty, I'd come in the door knowing. It looked like Sophia also realized this but had chosen to play along, good.

"I'd like a transfer to Arcadia." There were a few stunned looks, my Dad and Sophia included, at my statement.

"I would have expected expulsion, or even suspension. Most people would have gone with one of those." Blackwell said. I shook my head at her and continued, I needed to sell the idea that I wanted and could do more but was willing to be reasonable with them. Emma looked like she'd come to a great realization after Sophia had whispered something in her ear.

"Honestly, I'd love to go with something harsher, but expulsion would mean that they'd get fast-tracked into Arcadia which would almost defeat the purpose of going there. Plus it's probably too much to ask for." At this Blackwell nodded in agreement.

"Suspension is just an extra break from school unless it's an in-school suspension which I doubt you'd want to do since the staff is stretched as it is. All I've ever really wanted was for it to stop. I don't care about punishing them nearly as much as I do getting out of this situation. If you can guarantee me that then I won't ask for anything else. I won't spread this on media, I won't try for some stupid court case, I just want out." I added the last bit to remind them exactly _How_ screwed they were if they didn't do this. I wasn't even lying when I said it all either. Not that I'd be upset if they were properly punished, I just knew that they wouldn't be.

"I think that can be arranged, I'll talk to your father about the specifics. You'd likely be starting next week. We'll let you keep your textbooks and borrow ones in place of those destroyed today until Friday, preferably brought in before 3 p.m. if you don't mind." I smiled and nodded, that was perfect for me, I'd probably learn everything in them by Wednesday. Not that they needed to know that.

"You five can leave," she said pointing to the students," I'd like to have a word with everyone and then Mr. Hebert." We quickly departed, the Trio grouping up to talk away from us while Greg followed me like a lost puppy.

"So why did you let them off easy anyway? And how did you get out of there?" Greg seemed to have gone back to regular Greg again.

"I got what I wanted, plus they wouldn't have done much even if I'd asked them to." I said, walking towards the car to wait for Dad there.

"That doesn't answer my second question though." He said following still.

"How I got out of there is none of your business Greg." I heard a gasp of realization from behind me, great, he'd either figured it out or thought he did. He rushed to get right next to me and whispered quietly enough I was pretty sure that no one else would hear us.

"You broke out, didn't you? You must've gotten powers in the locker and you were the thing that they thought was an explosion, right? And you said all that to keep your identity secret." Why does he keep jumping from brain dead to actually competent? I needed to keep him from spreading this. Denying won't work since he's figured it out and has some pretty good proof to back it up. Plus any excuse I can make now would have been something that were it real I would have used in the meeting we just had. Instead, I stopped and gave him a glare that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Now Greg, hypothetically if I _Had_ , wouldn't you saying such prove that I needed to do something to fix the leak that's just come up? What would you suggest someone in such a theoretical situation should do? Hmm?" A little bit of threatening to make him realize how stupid he was being and giving him a way out.

"Um, I uh, would try to be close enough to them so that they couldn't tell anyone," his real intentions bled through clearly. He'd had a crush on me for a while but even with him helping me there was no way I would be going out with him.

"Well either way just make sure that you don't go around spreading any _Dangerous_ rumors, someone might just get hurt after all. If I heard one I'd know just who spread it this time." He blanched at that. He knew that since I was a parahuman that it wouldn't be me getting hurt, at least not directly and that was enough to shut him up. Hopefully it would at least. He shortly left with his mother along with the Trio, each purposefully looking away from me. The wait for Dad wasn't too much longer.

"Good news kiddo, the transfer was worked out and the timeline will stay the same. I had to sign about not letting this news go everywhere but I think it was worth it." I smiled up at him from where I was sitting on the steps.

"That's great, I can't wait to get started there." I surprised myself realizing that this also wasn't a lie. I did want to go there, have a chance at friends, at getting good grades. Being normal essentially, even if my power would make the grades super easy it would make the story of the work being destroyed even more believable. The car ride home had a much brighter atmosphere than it did coming out here.


	2. Chapter 2

I stepped off the bus near my new school with enough confidence and grace I'm certain that ancient kings and queens would be jealous. Even though both were power assisted it still filled me with a heady joy and excitement I couldn't remember feeling in years. I paid no mind to the few whispers and looks I was getting while walking into the main building, they weren't doing any of it for the reasons that people used to. Had anyone from Winslow seen me I would have been shocked at my transformation. I was dressed in a bright yellow top with a pair of stylish blue jeans and my hair in a ponytail. More importantly, however, was that I was looking up and not trying to hide by shrinking within myself anymore. It's almost unbelievable what a new attitude combined with a new outfit can do to others perception of you.

I walked through the front doors and took the first right and headed towards the office as if I'd done it a thousand times before. I'd looked over the layout of the school once before and my now-perfect memory made navigating the otherwise confusing halls a breeze. During my short trip in the school, I noticed two big things. One, that there weren't any open gang members that had been running rampant at Winslow, and two, that the school actually looked like it was taken care of. There were no broken windows, the paint on the walls and lockers wasn't chipped, and the floors looked practically spotless. It was weird to think, but I'd been so used to the decrepit school that I found it unnatural that everything _Wasn't_ a piece of crap. Entering the office I was greeted by the receptionist.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" She asked politely.

"I'm a new student, they asked me to check in at the office so I could get my class schedule." I replied.

"Taylor Herbert?" She said after checking her computer for a moment.

"Hebert, only one r." I corrected her.

"Vice principal Howell said she wanted to speak to you personally, her office is that one on the left." She said, pointing to a door with the vice principal's name on it.

"Thanks." I said, already heading towards the door. A fairly average woman with bleached hair greeted me from behind her desk with a smile.

"Hello Ms. Hebert, I was told that you were studying independently to catch up from the setbacks caused by your bullies. How did you manage with that?" Not bad, she both broached the subject of my reason for changing schools and school work itself without sounding insensitive.

"I don't know what Winslow was doing wrong but I managed to do several times more learning in the past week than I had during my time there." I said smiling. It was the truth, I'd flown through the textbooks I'd kept and then my mother's college books over the last week. That and some fashion design study, costume designing, and public speaking practice, not that she needed to know any of that.

"That's good to hear. Your classes are the same as in your old school, except now you've got one more class compared to your previous four. Here we have five classes there are three classes before lunch and two after. You've got English, Art, World Issues, Computers class, and Phys Ed in that order," she said handing me a schedule as I got up to leave she stood up and shook my hand.

"I also wanted to let you know that there won't be any of what happened in Winslow here. Unlike them, we try to take care of our own." Howell said with a face far more serious than she'd had for the rest of our short talk.

"I know, that's why I chose Arcadia. But regardless I'd prefer if I was treated just like any other student." I replied, smiling at her. With a brief grin, she sat back down.

"We will, we just treat everyone better. Well, I hope you have a good time here in Arcadia. You probably want to familiarize yourself with the school so I won't hold you any longer." She said as she sat back down. I left her office and said goodbye to the receptionist as I went back out into the halls. Once again I was mildly shocked by the atmosphere that the students gave off. That happy and content feeling you only saw in movies contrasted like night and day with Winslow's oppressive lifelessness. Unsurprisingly it felt like a breath of fresh air; if I couldn't fly this is what I'd say it would feel like.

I headed to the north end of the school to get to English early. Just because I'd already read the books for it didn't mean I knew where we were in the class. That and the possibility of a seating plan. It'd be kind of embarrassing if my first impression was someone asking me to get out of their seat. Mrs. Phillips was sitting at her desk near the front, working on some papers of some sort. She was a thin and wiry woman, with rather grey hair that was done up in a tight bun and keen green eyes behind thickly framed glasses. She almost looked like an older librarian.

"Hello, you must be Taylor, yes?" Mrs. Phillips asked once she noticed me.

"Yes, I came in a bit early to ask about where we were in the coursework and to ask if there was a seating arrangement." I said to her while I looked around the room. A few students had wandered into the room, some grouping together to chat and others sitting down, barely awake enough to have gotten here.

"We were just getting into Issac Asimov's works, specifically Nightfall's novel adaptation. As to your other question, there is a seating plan but some people have swapped seats so if you aren't happy just ask around a bit. You'll be sitting in the back, next to Chris and behind Theresa." She said, pointing to a desk. It was one to the left of the window and I could walk straight in from to door to it if I wanted to.

I thanked her and headed over to my new seat. Chris was already sitting there, he almost seemed in-between too tired to think and being really distracted by something. Weird, but maybe that's just how he was, or maybe he had something planned later in the day? Either way, it doesn't really matter. Theresa wasn't in her desk if she was in the room. A few people had noticed me and seemed interested in the new face but nobody had come up to talk to me yet. I sat down and turned left.

"Hello, nice to meet you, my name's Taylor." I said to him, holding out my hand. He seemed startled at my voice for a moment but quickly sorted himself out.

"Uh, Hi. I'm Chris, so you're the new girl? Nice to meet you too." He said as he shook my hand. "If you don't mind me asking why'd you transfer to Arcadia?"

"It's no worry. I was originally going to go here but instead, I went to Winslow so I could be with one of my friends. We… stopped being friends at one point so I left and came here, a fresh start, better education, the works." I explained to him. He nodded a little and then smiled a bit.

"Well we definitely do have some good funding here, and the people are pretty nice. Plus we've got the New Wave kids here so that's kinda cool, but they're pretty normal other than Vicky or Crystal flying around every once in awhile. I hope we can have a good semester together." I agreed and then took out the books we'd need for the class.

After a few minutes the first bell to get to class went off and the students began sauntering into the classroom. A girl who I assumed was Theresa sat down in the desk in front of me about a minute after the bell rang. She reminded me a bit of Madison, short, brown hair, and looks more cutesy than conventionally attractive. We greeted each other quickly before class began, and she didn't seem nearly as unkind as Madison was but she was a little... rough around the edges. She didn't seem too bad, perhaps I'd warm up to her after a while? Either way, I'd give her a chance, there isn't any realistic chance she'd be more of a problem than the Trio were. That and it was more than the Trio had given me.

Mrs. Phillips started the class by introducing me to everyone and following it up by saying a few canned lines about enjoying the semester. The rest of the class seemed a bit interested that they had a new student but since it was Arcadia, the school of the Wards. Thanks to this they were pretty used to new students coming in suddenly, so one who showed up a week late into the semester was a fair bit less interesting to them. That suited me just fine, almost anything's an improvement from what was going on at Winslow.

By the time lunch came around I'd met a few others who hadn't had English with me. I also made sure to introduce myself to Mrs. Nicolai and Mr. Burton who ran Art and World Issues respectively. I decided to head to the cafeteria for the first time in what felt like an eternity. No bullies to hide from meant I could finally live a normal life, well not _Quite_ normal, and maybe even have some friends. My aspirations are abysmally low but with what came before short term goals like these are good enough for now. After I'd sat down with my lunch I noticed walking up to me.

"Hey, you're the new girl, Taylor, right?" Miss overly cheery asked me when she got to me. She was a little shorter than me, with auburn hair and bright blue eyes. She was also waiting for a reply.

"Yeah, what's your name?" I asked her.

"I'm Alexandra, it's nice to meet you. My friends and I saw you sat down alone so we were wondering if you'd like to eat with us?" The now named Alexandra asked while pointing over to a small group of people, two girls and a boy I didn't recognize. One of which was manically waving her arms as the group was pointed at. I recognized her as Catherine from my art class. She was flailing enough that she ended up falling out of her seat much to her friends delight.

"Sure, why not?" I said standing up from my seat. I guess the goal of having friends might not be so far off after all.

"So Taylor, this is Catherine, Jonas, and Monica. Why don't you three introduce yourselves properly, hmm?" Alexandra said once we'd gotten close to the rest of her group.

"HI, I'd rather you called me Cathy, but nice to meet you. I hope Alex wasn't too forceful in dragging you over here." Catherine-Cathy said while we shook hands. Why did so many people need to shake my hand today? It's incredibly annoying to have to make sure I don't turn everyone into paste, not difficult exactly, just a nuisance.

"Nice to meet you too Cathy, and not really, she was just a bit more… direct than most people," I said grinning a bit at the idea of Alexandra, or perhaps Alex, trying to pull me anywhere I didn't want to go. "Would you prefer if I called you Alex?" I asked her to make sure.

"Sure, I don't mind." She replied, nodding I turned to the next person, Monica. She was a shorter person with short, dark brown hair. Her eyes were a similar shade compared to her hair, framed by thin glasses.

"I'm Monica, not really much else to say really." Monica said, with another handshake. Those things were getting old fast, why did ancient people have to start this stupid custom? Alex wrapped her arm around Monica. "Hey, don't be so modest now," Alex said scolding her, "she may not look like it but she's one of the school's best basketball players, and she still manages to ace all her courses." Alex continued on, oblivious to the embarrassment she was causing her friend, or more likely the result was intentional. The group's laughter seemed to say so at least, even I had a small smile from how infectious their joy was.

"And last but hopefully not least I'm Jonas. It's nice to get to know ya, hey, maybe you'll even be able to tone them down a tad? Nah, that's like askin' for a miracle." he said gesturing to Alex and Monica, who currently appeared to be in a life-or-death struggle for a cup of pudding.

After their valiant battle concluded, with Cathy the victor after she intervened, we ended up comparing interests and telling each other about ourselves. Cathy in spite of her mild-mannered look had a major interest in heavy metal music, both listening and playing. Jonas said he enjoyed baking and cooking and intended to become a baker in the future, using a football scholarship to get into his preferred bakery school. Alex wanted to get into movie making in spite, or maybe because, of our declining entertainment industry after learning by being either a reporter or camera operator to learn some of the basics in filming with professional equipment. As what was already becoming usual, Monica surprised everyone by admitting that she wanted to become a member of the PRT. Apparently she hadn't mentioned it to her friends yet, but as always they cheered her on.

I liked having someone to spend lunch with, mainly since the people I was with weren't bullying me or pitying me. It surprised me how much I'd missed simple things like this. I wonder what else in my life I've been missing like this? Probably most things that would fall into the category of "normal teenage life" would also classify as things I've been missing out on. What normal counts as is anyone's guess, but I certainly hadn't experienced it yet and likely wouldn't. Not that being a superhero was a problem, but it also wasn't exactly normal. I think I can live with this more than normal life, isn't something like this what most people wish for anyway?

The bell rang as I exited the changing room for the most dangerous part of the day, Gym class. As a Brute who doesn't tire and looks fit I can't just hyper-sandbag it, I have to actually look like I'm trying and still get decent marks. The silver lining of this is that since the school wants improvement in the physical testing, something that no matter how well I do today I'll be able to do. I'd made sure to look up the limits of an ordinary 15-year-old so that I could aim a little below it, maybe 10-15% below for the first physical today and then hit about 5% below by the end of the year. With that much improvement, it shouldn't look too weird since I now looked like a top-grade athlete for my age, which I have to admit is a nice change from the upright frog appearance I'd had before.

The rest of my new friends and I congregated on the right side of the gaggle of people in our class. The instructor Mrs. Sorensen began explaining what we were going to do, but since I'd already talked to her to check what we were doing I instead began chatting with my friends.

"So, you three ready for this?" I asked them, in our gym clothes it was clear that Monica was a pretty serious athlete while Cathy and Alex were more average students, or by Cathy's grimace perhaps less than average.

"Not really, but not as if I care." Alex said, looking like she cared as much as she claimed. The free-spirited girl wasn't one to pay attention to much more than her passions and friends unless she had to. "I'm actually kind of surprised, you don't really seem to be a jock yet you're super fit." She continued after a moment of looking me over.

"Not really, but I've been taking some martial arts, and I'm no stranger to sports but they're just not my thing." I lied smoothly. Truthfully anyone in Winslow would probably call me on my bluff but without knowing me from before they didn't have anything to suggest otherwise. The only thing that would be my saving grace was my increased ability to learn, sure I was self-taught, but with my power that was more than enough to give me a reasonable skill in several different martial arts. My power was really unfair but I loved it regardless.

"Huh, I guess I could see you doing that, and with how bad Brockton Bay can be it'd definitely be a good skill to learn." Monica said, doing some stretches which I was mimicking. It'd be bad form to make a mistake this small this early in the game. "But doing sports is more than enough for me, I don't need to fight if I can run away." She said after her next stretch.

"I don't do either, so it's kind of scary to go out late at night," Cathy said and then turned to me, "do you think you could teach me a few basics, Taylor?" No matter how much I wanted to say no I couldn't without the obvious follow-up question of 'well who's your teacher then?' if I used the excuse of not being professional enough.

"Sure, I can't go into anything too high level though, I'm not qualified enough to train you that much but I can teach you a bit. When do you want to start?" I said while silently wishing not anytime too soon, I was almost done my costume and then I could go out and be a hero. Once I'd made my debut I'd been hoping to go on a crime-stopping spree. She thought for a moment before she answered my question.

"Well I'm not going to have a lot of time for a while, so maybe in two weeks or so?" Cathy's words made me a little happier, This timeline would mean I'd have the time to finish my costume and make my first appearance as well as many consecutive appearances as I could hope for. That and I could have an excuse to socialize outside of school, something else I haven't done since Emma was my friend. As the teacher began to actually start splitting us up and saying who was doing what so that we could start the testing we began to pay attention, but likely for different reasons. I needed to make sure I wasn't going too far and outshining everyone. Being near or at the top in some categories is ok, but sticking out my being the number one in this class, and every other one if I wasn't being careful, would out me in minutes.

We had a few basic things: some flexibility tests, a running portion where we'd go from one end of the gym to the other as many times as we could in a time limit, and then situps and pushups, both timed. Since we were grouped by where we were and split up into groups of seven Alex, Cathy, Monica, and I were in a group with Zoe, Mira, and Tsubasa. Our group was first up for the running tests. Mrs. Sorensen set a timer for fifteen minutes and we began running. I made sure to stay just behind the lead runner, which just so happened to be Monica. Tsubasa was making a good fight for second, I almost felt bad for her that I wasn't really competing with her but it wasn't like I had the option to. In the end, I let Tsubasa get ahead of me by a little bit to make it look like I'd actually tried but still failed, no matter how perfect I'd love to be that would be really suspicious. The other tests had similar results, once in awhile I'd take first, like with the push ups, but I generally hovered in that area of the first few students. After that school was over and we each went our separate ways.

The fashion, costuming, and public speaking practice I'd done over the last week weren't pointless. They were all skills I'd definitely need if I was going to be a hero. The joke of the PRT standing for Public Relations Team started somewhere. That somewhere being the fact that they did run off of their public perception to a large extent, going so far as to limit effectiveness in favor of looking more family-friendly. It would all be in vain however if I couldn't have a nice enough costume to pull it off. I managed to find inspiration in one of the most unlikely places a hero could imagine. Uber and Leet. In spite of their villainous reputation they were experts when it came to costume design, how else could they pull off so many jobs when Leet couldn't build anything twice? Simple, they just re-decorated the old but effective equipment with mundane craftsmanship. Likely provided by Uber in all honesty but well done regardless. In their forums, they showed how to design costumes for other advocates of video games to 'cosplay', or dress up as characters from video games. They even had a few how-to videos which I took full advantage of.

They used ethylene-vinyl acetate foam, more often called EVA foam blocks cut out for the bulkier pieces and a thinner version commonly called craft foam to add smaller decorations out of. I'd managed to find some incredible examples online about how it could turn out looking almost indistinguishable from real armour if it was prepared properly. Since I didn't need armour for my own protection, I hadn't been able to hurt myself at all no matter how hard I'd tried, I'd decided that foam armour that looked stylish would be better than looking dorky. That and a cheap costume that looked nice would be easier to replace than a normally effective but unappealing costume that would cost a ton _And_ be unnecessary in the end anyway.

I'd made the undersuit portion somewhat padded by adding a thin layer of craft foam made to appear similar to some of the padded professional costumes. I'd added shoulder pads, a chest piece that extended down where it met the only practical part of my costume, a utility belt like what was seen in comics. The boots were made in the same way as the rest of the armour but this time, I'd added the soles of ordinary boots to the bottom so that the foam and leather construct looked like it was simply an expensive boot. If you didn't look too closely. I'd managed to make a basic cape but I'd intentionally fastened it weakly, weak enough that anyone tugging on it should tear the thing cleanly off of my shoulders. The gloves, however, were pretty expensive, but with the money I'd saved with the alternate choice of construction meant I could afford to splurge a bit. Worst comes to worst I'd just go without gloves if they were wrecked. The whole suit so far was grey with yellow accents. Nothing too special but the grey should be alright for stealth while the yellow might be against the stealth idea I'd wanted to appear as an actual hero when I went out. I have no idea what I'd do if someone mistook me for a villain, that'd be pretty embarrassing honestly.

The part I was finishing up today was my mask, one of the most important parts to a cape's identity. I'd built a fairly large domino mask from the block foam since it was a bit sturdier and added additional layers of vinyl to make it a bit stronger. Afterwards, I'd inserted yellow lenses into the mask's eye holes from the back. I was grinning like a maniac now that it was done, I could finally go out and be a hero. All that I needed now was to test the spirit gum, a type of theatrical glue, to see if it would hold and the most important part. I needed a name.


	3. Chapter 3

I was zip-tying the last of a surprisingly large group of the Azn Bad Boyz, yes, that was their actual name sadly, when I heard someone behind me. Turning around I tried to continue projecting an image of strength, my image would really suffer if I got startled by a passing pedestrian. Sadly it wasn't a pedestrian, it was a tall, heavily muscled man with dragon tattoos swirling around his arms and torso, an ornate metal dragon mask gleaming in the dim light of the street. Lung, the leader of the ABB was here. I guess that explained why there were so many of them gathered here, but I couldn't just run. Since I'd already called the PRT they'd be showing up shortly, and without me they'd be facing the Dragon of Kyushu, one of the few people on the planet who had faced an Endbringer on their own and lived to tell the tale, all on their own.

"I will let you leave if you wish, girl. Many an overconfident hero has failed against me, most of them far too early in their career. So I will give you this chance to reconsider your decision." Lung said, looking almost impressed with what I had done. Well, I guess now's as good time as any to see what the limits of my power were, and hope to whatever might be out there that I didn't meet those limits.

I rocketed towards him as fast as I could, surprising myself a little at how fast I was flying. I knew I could fly at incredible speeds but I was certainly well above the sound barrier, probably several times in fact. I swerved to the right, both to attempt to dodge anything he sent my way and in the hopes that he wouldn't end up accidentally roasting his own men. They may be criminals but they didn't deserve to be killed for it. A small flicker of surprise flashed across his face before he swung out at me. I ducked under his swing and tackled into his side, mashing his body a bit and breaking a few ribs. Apparently he didn't start his transformation at too high of a Brute level. He had already begun growing a little, only a few inches at most and some silver scales poking out of his skin but it was visible already.

Lung swung downwards, slamming into my back with barely any effect, at most driving me down half a foot. Lung tried to push back as his healing factor kicked in and small scales sprouting everywhere, ribs snapping back into place with sounds I could certainly live without hearing again, but likely would many times over the course of this fight. I let go and swung a punch aimed for his chest, but he reacted fast enough to try to block. Emphasis on try. His hand and half of his forearm ended up snapping off entirely and shattering the metal scales on his arm, the punch still connecting to his chest but with a bit less force. At this point his growth, and his regeneration if the rumors that they were linked were right, went into overdrive. Fast enough I wasn't sure you could get an accurate measurement of his height at any given time, he now had claws on all his limbs and was nearly covered from head to toe in silver. The fact that he wreathed himself in fire probably wouldn't help either with anyone aspiring to keep track of his rate of escalation either. It also wouldn't help my costume's life expectancy. I didn't need this costume, and EVA foam was apparently quite flame retardant so I hope that it'll be up to this challenge. But it honestly offered almost nothing other than modesty and pockets. However, I'd spent enough time working on it that I really didn't want to have to rebuild it.

We spent a few moments, him circling and continuing his growth, he had almost reached ten feet by now while I floated slowly looking for some way to gain a big enough advantage. I needed to be quick, otherwise, he would outgrow and probably overpower me. I also didn't want to get known for the excessive property damage that inevitably happened in a fight against Lung, it was rumored that his fire would get hot enough to melt the pavement and light entire neighborhoods on fire, the latter being something he was already getting a head start on. I'm not sure if he could even be knocked out and I certainly didn't want to accidentally kill him, so I'd either need to either make him back off or get away from him without endangering the PRT or the people in the area if I couldn't find a solution.

He started charging towards me and sent a column of fire at me. I evaded by flying underneath the flames, curving back to grab his right, outstretched wrist. I held his wrist over my head, both of my hands not nearly enough to wrap around it yet I still had enough leverage to get a tight grip. I somersaulted in mid-air throwing Lung over my head and into the ground, shattering the pavement in front of me and likely some of his bones. Pressing the offensive I rained several blows on his head and upper body that didn't seem to do anything meaningful, only backing off when he tried to swipe at me. I still don't have anything effective to use against him, no matter how traditional cars were as projectiles in cape fights I didn't want to be an economic burden on the people living here. That and I doubt a car would do much either, he was nearing ten feet already, or he would be if he was standing upright. It didn't seem like he'd be stopping anytime soon or be backing down.

Lung stood up and his mouth split into four parts. He looked as confident as he did when we began the fight and in spite of his inhuman appearance even I could tell. He clearly knew what he was doing in a fight against another Brute. I was still overpowering him, although I didn't have the experience to stay ahead. Sure my strength was making up for it, but only for now. In a short while, he'd probably be overpowering me unless I was significantly stronger than I thought I was. I could try pushing my speed further but I can't imagine it would be fun for anyone nearby, I'd probably break their eardrums if I went at my full speed anywhere inside the city limits. On the other hand, it would probably be at least as bad for everyone if the fire kept spreading at the speed it was right now. In fact, the street was getting far more charred than I'd have liked it to. Well, no time like the present, right?

I pushed my processing speed and flight to the max, flying in fast enough that everything in the world seemed to stop. I could see the flames around Lung move in slow motion, small things like a bug stuck in the air as if it was trying to swim in molasses, and Lung looked like he was caught by our city's resident time stopper. Perfect. I swooped towards him like the wrath of a god, raining blows from almost every angle, each hit causing a shockwave that I could watch slowly move towards me. As the first reached me it sounded like an explosion, and considering how my armour, if it could really be called that, was reacting it might as well have been. I flew away to get out of there so that I wasn't left in the most awkward fight between a nude dragon man and an Alexandria package without a high-quality costume could get. I made sure to not go my full speed, only fast enough to avoid the advancing shock wave as it dissipated. I must have been at least five stories up when it was gone enough that it wouldn't shred my costume. The surrounding street wasn't as lucky. The windows of cars and nearby houses shattered, nearby brick walls cracked, and Lung looked like he'd gone through an exceptionally powerful trash compactor. Lung fell to his knees, coughing up copious amounts of blood.

But the fight wasn't over yet. Glaring daggers Lung staggered to his feet, growing and healing as he stood. His growth seemed to be much slower than normal, possibly from the extent of his injuries. He had to be pushing twelve feet already, and some small spikes were poking out of his back. Perhaps the rumor of him growing wings wasn't just a tall tale after all. The devastation around him was, well, devastating. The area looked like it had been bombed, and in the center of this blast was a very angry draconic man. My armour had gotten some major wear and tear already, I don't think I'll want to go that fast again unless it gets really bad, the destruction could have harmed someone and wasn't a good idea in the first place. Fortunately, our fight had gone far enough away from his gang members that they didn't seem too affected.

A few blue teardrop shaped energy blasts impacted Lung's front as a red and silver wearing teen flew in, striking Lung in the back of the head before flying off again. Kid Win and Aegis respectively, had arrived and attacked. Lung roared, sending a corona of bluish flames around him. Another, older looking man in streamlined red armour flew in like a projectile, which he was since he'd been thrown by his well-known partner, Battery. There were a few rumors floating around that they were either going out or married to each other. The circuits on her suit began glowing, increasing in luminance until she rushed in, giving him no time to heal up. After a few strikes, she backed off, giving Assault a final hit on the shoulder to charge him up some more. It appears the cavalry had arrived so to speak. I exited from my brief moment of hesitance, which likely wasn't more than a few seconds, and re-entered the fight. I plummeted into the ground right in front of Lung, launching him into the air and shattering the pavement from the force of my landing. I spun around and kicked him towards Assault and Battery who leapt to meet him, striking him in tandem into a lamp post.

I darted next to him and put him in a chokehold while presenting his front towards the PRT and attending heroes. Said heroes began pummeling him with blasts, punches, and debris while Aegis and the PRT looking a little left out. Lung began trying to claw at my arms to little effect, only managing to scrape away the long gloves, foam bracers, and the undersuit beneath it. Well I guess that means that I'm going to have to rebuild my suit anyway. He tried thrashing, attacking me, the heroes when he could, anything he could think of. His flames weren't doing much, likely since he wasn't able to focus enough with the declining oxygen and he seemed to be shrinking as he fell asleep. I held on a bit longer before backing up and letting the PRT troops foam him.

"So, you're Invictus? I have to say, that's probably one of the most impressive first appearances. Other than my own fabulous intro of course." Assault asked jovially as Battery and the Wards talked to the PRT Troops who were picking up

"Thanks for the help with Lung." I said. Assault chuckled a bit while looking around at the havoc Lung and I had wrecked on the streets. The only reassuring thing being that I couldn't hear any screams or cries, so it was unlikely anyone had been nearby when I went full speed. Not that I could blame them for trying to get out of dodge when two capes began duking it out down the street.

"You know, I'm pretty sure you did most of the damage on your own. Especially that one you did just before we joined in the fight. You probably would have won, just would have taken a bit longer." Assault said. Battery began heading over towards us while the Wards left, possibly on patrol or to go back to their base.

"I, however, am not sure she would have won without much more damage and possible loss of life. The only surprise being that Lung would have been the one in danger of dying this time," Battery said, chuckling a bit near the end, "It's always hard for two Brutes to win a fight without one of them dying. Do your best to remember that not every Brute can be knocked unconscious with a choke hold, in fact, most can't or may be able to get away from you. Aegis is a great example of this," she said while pointing to the boy who was flying away.

"Even with all of that, good job. It's certainly not every day that a new hero does something this big or important on their first day." Battery said once she got to us. I had been nodding here and there throughout her statements as she spoke. She wasn't wrong about the dangers of a cape fight, especially when more than one Brute was involved.

If I was being honest I was a bit shocked that even the worst that Lung had dished out hadn't actually fazed me in the slightest. At most I'd been a bit uncomfortable when his fire was around me, it hadn't been the heat but a bit of difficulty breathing. I think I might also fit under the small number of Brute capes that could be choked to death. At least that's one thing to look out for. I'm actually a little relieved that I'd found a weakness, otherwise with my luck I'd probably end up finding out at a much less convenient time. I might need to buy some gear to compensate for that, I guess I can look it up later.

"I'll keep that in mind, is there anything else?" I said, trying to sound professional without being too unapproachable. Even if inside I was a little, ok a lot, excited to meet them I didn't want to come off as rude or a fangirl, it would ruin any chance of developing a respectable reputation. Battery talked into her helmet, probably her comm system, for a moment.

"Yes, would you like to see what the Protectorate and Wards are about and consider joining? The initial meeting wouldn't be binding, it would be a meet and greet plus getting you signed up as an independent hero, plus hearing all about the Wards program is, benefits, duties, the works. Being a registered independent hero, or Affiliated Hero as the program is called, would let you easily get rewards from Villain captures and the confiscation of weapons, obviously illegal funds, and drugs. That and even if you don't want to join up we provide lessons to registered independents to help them get off the ground, set up contacts, get called on big missions, things like that." Battery said while sounding a bit livelier than she had a little bit ago, I guess she enjoys meeting new capes. It seemed like a pretty good deal if clearly a ploy to garner goodwill. Even though I knew this it was working. If they'd come off more antagonistically then I don't think I'd have seriously considered joining the Wards. Even with it though I don't think I'll be joining, but the benefits of being an affiliated hero seemed pretty nice. I could have looked at it cynically but even then it benefited both parties.

"Sure, I think that getting signed up as an affiliated hero wouldn't be a problem, when should I come in?" I asked her.

"Wonderful, could you come in tomorrow at 4:30 to the PRT building? We'll have a few of the Wards there and a Protectorate member there to help by answering any questions you might have that the Wards might not know, plus we'll give you the bounty for Lung when you come in tomorrow. Just tell someone at the front desk your name and that you have an appointment." Battery said, shooing Assault off to do something likely more important than standing around. I looked down at my costume and was surprised to see that it had barely been affected by Lung's fire at all. True, the forearms were wrecked but I could cut those off just before the elbow and have a decent looking costume for tomorrow, I'd already suspected that my gloves wouldn't last long. Alas poor expensive gloves, I knew you well.

"I think that would be great, I'll make sure to be on time." I said to Battery. We said our goodbyes and they began heading back to the PRT headquarters. I chose to follow their lead and flew off towards home.

I'd say this was an amazing first day, I'd managed to capture Lung of all people on my first night out. The couple dozen of ABB members were barely a footnote compared to him, a powerhouse that had single-handedly dealt with the entire Protectorate in the city. I still didn't know How I was fine, I didn't even feel sore or tired, even after all that Lung had done, true he hadn't reached Endbringer-fighting levels but it was still an incredible feat. I think I need to try to find if there's some limit to my strength or durability, I can't afford to hit my limit in a fight. I am glad that I'm as strong as I am, I'd have been crushed, literally and figuratively, otherwise.

I flew in about a block away and walked calmly towards my house, my head on a swivel to make sure no one saw me. Unsurprisingly there weren't a lot of people up and looking outside their windows at this time of night, in fact, there weren't any at all. I flew into my window quietly and changed into pajamas for the night. A small bonus of my powers was that I didn't need as much sleep as others so I could keep doing this every day without much hassle. Well, no more than what it took to take down supervillains anyway. I fell asleep with a smile on my face, today had been a good day.


End file.
